Specialty devices are devices that are designed to perform actions in response to receiving commands to perform such actions. These devices have some communication capability via a wireless or wireline communications protocol. However, many of these devices upon being first sold, typically do not initially enjoy device driver support from a variety of, or from any operating systems, and as a result, these specialty devices are at least initially designed to be used without necessarily communicating with an operating system. Hence, these devices are characterized as being special, in that they are atypical relative to other devices that upon being first sold, enjoy device driver support from one or more operating systems. After being first sold, some specialty devices may gain device driver support over time in association with one or more operating systems.
Specialty printer devices are a sub-category of specialty devices. A specialty printer device is designed to transfer information onto various types of portable media. Such portable media typically excludes the standard 8.5×11 inch paper media, which is printed upon by many commonly available office printers. Upon first being sold, these types of devices are typically designed to perform functionality that may not be directly accessible via communication with most computer operating systems. Hence these devices are characterized as being special, as they are atypical relative to many commonly available office printers that are sold in high volume within the desktop computer market, and that typically enjoy some amount of operating system device driver support upon being first sold.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.